favorite image from the weekend .. « Neil vN

Tangents

favorite image from the weekend ..

November 14, 2009

[ click on the photo for a larger image ]

My favorite image from this weekend is this one. It is one from a series of candid (or semi-candid) portraits of various guests and their kids at a Bat Mitzvah party I photographed. Aside from the obvious photographs that need to be taken during these kinds of events, I also try and grab more candid images with a telephoto zoom (70-200mm f2.8)

By going wide open on this lens, you can really isolate your subject .. and also draw in more of the available light. In this case the background is a mixture of out-of-focus balloons and the DJ’s lights and stuff. The best of these images are usually those where I am fortunate in getting a nice expression .. while still being able to position myself so that the background is complementary or interesting.

My settings: 1/160 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO
My gear: Nikon D3 / Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H) / Nikon SB-900
and of course, this image could’ve been taken with any equivalent gear,
such as the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS (B&H)

My settings were chosen such that enough of the background shows. Lighting is quite simple as usual, and was just one on-camera speedlight, flagged with the black foamie thing to give directional light on this boy’s face. I did have a 1/2 CTS gel on my speedlight to help match it with the tungsten lighting in the reception venue. As such my white balance was set to 3700K. As an aside, that image is straight out of ACR with no further adjustments from my usual defaults for the RAW file. I did no editing in Photoshop to it.

And there you have it .. a simple semi-candid portrait, with simple yet effective lighting, while shooting “on the run”.

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19 Comments »

Very nice work! Your book has been my daily train reading for the last month. I wish there was a sequel.

Comment by Robert Torres — November 14, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
Neil, that is a great shot. The colours are so beautifully vibrant with an excellently blurred background.

Comment by Aaron Downs — November 15, 2009 @ 3:00 am
Hey Neil,

I’ve been perusing your site for sometime and I really value your skill, insight, and ability to articulate confusing concepts. I know you’ve recently put out a book about on-camera flash…but I was wondering if you had any plans to write about portable location lighting/off-camera flash. Even a DVD of one of your workshops would be extremely cool.

All the best,
Nick

Comment by Nick — November 15, 2009 @ 5:21 am
Nick, thanks!
There is a book on off-camera lighting in the works for next year.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 15, 2009 @ 5:27 am
I also love reading everthing you put into your site. Can’t speak
for the rest but sometimes I find myself reading and watching so much information (books, blogs, DVD’s) that I sometimes
forget to go out and shoot. Being a father of 4 small
children my time is very limiting, but I have found myself recently taking my daughter to the duck park
and just using all those tips I read and watched.
“Just Shoot”

Comment by George Vivanco — November 15, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Hi Neil,

I realy like this foto. your site is my sourc for ‘how an image should look like’ based on coler and light.
for me it’s amazing that ISO setting was as high as 1600. when I use ISO 400 or above on my CANON 5D MK II (with prime lenses, RAW) I never get clear images like this. do you use any high-ISO noise reduction settings in the camera? Also the colors are beautiful, perfect skin tones, so natural. may i ask about your ACR default settings to get an approach?

greetings,
thomas

Comment by Thomas — November 16, 2009 @ 3:13 am
Very cool shot… I could have done with a lens that size when I took photos at a barmitzvah this weekend

Comment by Jeanette — November 17, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
Hello, neil, and thanks for all the effort on your wonderful web site.

I have a question which I think I have an answer to already, but still… Do I understand it correctly that when using TTL flash, it calculates the power it needs to give for a given combination of ISO + shutter speed + aperture based on the distance to subject as transmitted by the lens (at least original manufacturer lens, such as Canon)? If so, the power a flash outputs will necessarily be less if it is bounced from a wall/ceiling/a larger back room like you illustrated in one fo the articles. Does that mean that I always need to dial in + EV compensation on the flash in order to get good exposure of the foreground subject or does the camera somehow know (is aware of flash head being tilted/swiveled?) that the flash is not direct and that +EV compensation will be necessary?

Thank you,
Dragos

Comment by Dragos — November 18, 2009 @ 10:28 am
Dragos .. in theory, the camera and flash will calculate correct TTL flash exposure for you, by using a preflash sequence that it measures to determine how much flash to actually put out during the main flash burst.

So in theory you shouldn’t have to add more FEC to get correct exposure when you bounce flash. But .. you also have no way of knowing what algorithms kick into play when you swivel your flash-head out of the ‘normal’ position.

This implies though that you have to just get used to your specific camera’s behaviour in general when you bounce flash.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 18, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
What a beautiful image… and darn it to heck! I had no idea you were coming to Austin! Question about the picture – if you have flash on camera, how are you avoiding pin lights? Those catch lights are in the perfect spot!

Comment by Jennifer — November 18, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
Jennifer, if you are getting pin-sized highlights in your subject’s eyes .. then most likely it is because of how you bounce flash. If you’re indoors, remove your plastic flash modifier. Bounce flash behind you. But bounce it at a low enough angle that the light doesn’t come in steeply from above. (This would give you shadows in the eye-sockets.)

If you bounce your flash over your shoulder, or off to the side, at a low enough angle .. then these large catchlights are nearly predictably there. Every time. (Assuming of course you have bouncable surfaces indoors.)

Follow the articles from this page onwards on .

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 19, 2009 @ 5:49 am
Neil, lovely shot!!!
Where did you bounce this (how low?) to avoid a lot of shadow under his hat? At those settings, I would think you were a couple of stops below ambient.

Comment by Andrew — November 20, 2009 @ 10:15 am
Andrew, as mentioned elsewhere .. the trick is to bounce your flash at a low enough angle behind you, and even off to the side from you. Then you will get enough light in there under the hat.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 21, 2009 @ 5:52 am
Hi Neil! It’s always a pleasure to see your instructions and knowledge about light and other stuffI’veve already read twice your book and still learning a lot. But what I’m really impressed in your site is the colour of all your photos. The spectacular vivivd colours! So…..do you use some kind of post production to emphazise them? Is there any specific control on camera to make? Or is just your magic? I’m really dazzled by the colours!
Thanks and congratulations for everything you ve been done!

Comment by Artur Ocubaro — November 23, 2009 @ 6:24 am
Thomas and Arthur, I will add an article in the next week or two on my defaults for ACR. Check back again. : )

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 26, 2009 @ 5:45 am
Neil,

I’ve tried to bounce the flash behind me. Do you ever used it as the main light?
From my experience, it’s ok if it’s just for fill flash, but it will never cut it for the main light.

I bounce it at a wall about 5-6 meters behind me, and already at the maximum at everything. 1600 ISO (the maximum at my cam), f2.8 and 1/50.

Comment by ed — November 26, 2009 @ 8:52 am
Ed .. there are numerous examples on this website where I used bounce flash as my main light. Explore a while. : )

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 3, 2009 @ 5:39 am
Yeah, I’ve read all your article, but i just need to know one thing that i still don’t know.
It is about using the bounce flash behind me as the main light, have you ever used it?
I saw some of your work with bouncing the flash behind, but only for subtle fill flash.
Btw sorry if my english confused you, it’s my third language :)

Comment by Ed — December 3, 2009 @ 8:17 am
Ed, I’m a lost as to why you’d say there are no examples on this site where bounce flash from a single speedlight was used as a main source of light.

Here is but one example – the report-back from the workshop in Cork, Ireland.
I also posted the photo there with no flash, as comparison.

As I said in the previous post, this website is littered with examples. Explore some.

Neil vN, whose mother tongue isn’t English either.

Comment by Neil — December 6, 2009 @ 8:28 pm